Chapter 46
Ineeded a few minutes after that call to catch my breath because what the hell had that been. Every time I saw him, it was as though time seemed to stop.
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe so well; I was so shy that I wanted to pee my pants, and so horny I wanted to hump the nearest surface I could find. So completely ridiculous and weak, yet as I put the phone away and returned to packaging up Aurora’s wedding dress, it felt like I was floating on air. I stayed near surfaces, grabbing onto whatever I found until soon enough, we were out of the store.
We didn’t need any catering of any sort, but there was this one vintage cake I had seen at a store in Brooklyn a few months earlier. I had gone looking for croissants for a believe-it-or-not croissants themed pre-wedding photo shoot and had come across the bakery. The cake was a gorgeous, small cake with pearls and the most elegant vintage swirls. It would go so perfectly with Aurora’s aesthetic, I was sure.
Afterwards, we went to the florist. I was no stranger to these and had my go to vendor. It was last minute, but thankfully, I was able to order the flowers needed; a wide assortment of white roses, vines to hang off the altar and drape along the pews, dahlias, tulips, lilac orchids, and ranunculus.
I debated about red roses for a while until eventually, his assistant Scott reminded me that the budget was without limit and that I could get whatever I wanted in whatever quantity, even if it didn’t work out. I was impressed and flustered at the same time but regardless I wasn’t prone to waste, so I solidified my vision of how I wanted the photos to look and included it. Then I ordered candles in all sizes and in the hundreds because this had to be a magical moment. This made me also realize that I would need temporary workers, and instantly I called Anna. As a recruiter, she knew how to get these, and of course, she also, as a result, earned her invitation as well. She was so excited, especially as we headed over to her apartment to pick her up, and then it was time to head back to the Hamptons.
To my tiny bit of surprise, Scott told us that Drake had ordered us to take the helicopter. This way we could get to the church on time to get started while the rest of the supplies came over. Anna couldn’t believe her eyes and was too scared to get in, so that delayed us. When she eventually gathered her nerves, though, we all boarded, and her mouth remained wide open amusingly for the length of the trip.
Midway through, she leaned forward and whispered into my ear.
“You”re going to propose to him, right?” she asked, and I was startled.
“What?”
“You”re not?” she asked, horrified and flabbergasted all in one. “You”re going to just walk away from all of this in two days. Thanks for the nice time. Are you insane? You really have no ambition at all? Or no vile bone in your body because I can put it there?”
“Shut the hell up,” I gritted through my teeth at her, and thankfully Scott didn”t hear. Or perhaps he did because he not only wasn”t hiding the fact that he was watching us, he also wasn’t hiding just how amused he was by how we hit and treated each other. Eventually, we arrived, and my entire plan was to avoid Aurora. It was too sad that within the next few hours, she was going to think I had abandoned her altogether and hate me even more, but I couldn’t feel bad because of this. Hopefully, later on, she would understand and forgive me. Anna took her dress to my room, and then I busied myself with heading over to the church with Scott to get started. It was indeed an old church and a bit unclean, so we immediately got to work in polishing surfaces.
Soon the supplies began to arrive as well as the temporary workers for everything, and I completely lost interest in all else beyond completing this and getting it ready for the very small wedding party. This was indeed the original party that Aurora wanted, and I was so glad to be able to give it to her.